October 23, 2009

Where did all of the For Sale Signs?

Another month and the overall number of available Single Family homes in Montgomery County is down 6.3% from last year this time. Though this is discouraging to many buyers…especially those that are trying to settle by November 30th to take advantage of the $8000 tax credit, the good news is that there has been an increase in the number of homes going under contract (37.8%) as well as those that are settling (6.9 %).

This is great news for Sellers! Inventory is at a historic low as well as interest rates. This creates more demand than ever for your home. There are more buyers in the lower MontgomeryCounty market than there are homes to buy! Shockingly, I have seen good homes staged and priced well sell in 2 days!!!

Existing home sales are on the upward trend across the county with a 9.4% increase from September 2008 and specifically here in Montgomery County we are above the National average (up 11.8% from last year). With a solid economy in our area, new job projections, limited inventory and favorable buying incentives like low interest rates and a tax credit, if you are contemplating selling your home, NOW IS THE TIME!!

**All stats are according to NAR (National Association of Realtors) and GCAAR (Greater Capitol Area Association of Realtors).

October 21, 2009

This is the reason for all of the delay...

Well the good news is that we finally have word from our corporate client that they have scheduled the personal property eviction for November 14th. This event is what we at the Rozansky Realty Group have been waiting more than 6 months for and unfortunately for the Seller the property values in this particular subdivision have decreased even more over this period of time.

Four years ago, when these homes were originally built they sold for over $1.8 million. Currently there are a few listings available in the immediate area listed from $1.3 million to $1.4 million.

Four years from now, I would expect the market value or these homes to higher, so I decided to take a personal tour (and wanted to see how it looked after sitting empty for so long). I was out running errands with my husband and we were in the area so we decided to go in together. Pleasantly surprised by the space and condition my husband was entranced by the property – working his brain to determine how we could submit a low offer (as every one else thinks you do with foreclosures) and buy this HUGE house (almost 7000 sq ft on three levels).
As I saw the wheels turning in his head I got caught up in his frenzy…it was beautiful and it could be a great deal…BUT then caught myself getting caught up and realized that for several reasons this what not an option and we both needed to float back down to the real world:

1. We can’t afford a million dollar house let alone one around 1,200,000- 1,400,000…

2. We just got married in February of 2009 and have no immediate plans for children. We have an adorable puppy, but otherwise have no need for 5 out of the 6 bedrooms!

3. We don’t have furniture to fill 7000 sq ft of living space (let alone half that much).

4. We probably couldn’t afford the utility bills let alone the TAXES – which need to be appealed (House was assessed this year for 1,741,750 and annual property taxes are approximately $18,000).

So obviously I won’t be buying it but what about you? After seeing it, I’m convinced that it is a great opportunity for the right buyer.

We should have a list price mid to end November. I will post the list price once we get it, but feel free to contact me cara.pearlman@gmail.com if you have any questions in the interim.

October 21, 2009

There are several banks and servicing companies that hire our group, Rozansky Realty Group, to manage and market for sale their REO properties. REO stands for Real Estate Owned.

On occasion we have a Bethesda foreclosure – currently there are only 5 active foreclosure listings and 2 foreclosure listings that are under contract in all of Bethesda.

We have been managing a property for a Mortgage Servicing company –AHMSI – for almost a year and still can not legally put it on the market and make it available for showings because the previous owner left behind some personal property in the garage before we ever visited the house.

The process is complicated but here’s some basic “Foreclosure 101”

Two things can happen to the occupants and their belongings when a property goes to foreclosure:

1. If they currently reside in the property they can get evicted. An eviction is the removal of a tenant from a property owned by another person. In each state there are different laws regarding the actual procedure of having some one evicted. In an effort to oversimplify the process for our purposes – assume the property notice has been given to the occupants (tenants).

The Sheriff, as well as a representative of the owner (in our case some one from our office) and possibly a moving crew come out to the property and escort occupants out of the home and place all personal belongings on the curb for 24 hours (any remaining items left on the curb can be hauled away after the time period passes).

2. They can leave on their own terms before the posted eviction date. Some banks even offer a “Cash for keys” program in which they offer financial assistance to occupants in exchange for keys to the residence.

On occasion, occupants abandon a property and leave behind personal property. They might leave before we are able to make contact with them and there is no one way of knowing if they will come back. When they leave personal property (beyond trash) the bank or servicing company is forced to pursue a personal property eviction.

The particular property that I want to tell you about (but I can’t…at least yet) is stuck in that very personal property eviction stage. It has been there for a year!

It seems safe to assume if the previous owners haven’t come back for the small pile of personal items in the garage that they have managed to live with out for the past 365 days that they probably don’t want them. The foreclosure attorneys have advised that we are finally approaching the end of this process and hopefully will be able to market this home before the end of the year! It’s a pretty one in a great neighborhood…I will be certain to post more information as it becomes available.

October 15, 2009

Stunning and Expanded colonial - this is what all of the "hoopla" was about!

How does a house get multiple offers after being on the market for 40 days? I will tell you how…

On June 25th I listed 10008 Sorrel Ave, Potomac, MD 20854. We were originally listed at 1,099,900 – which I must disclose that both the sellers as well as I felt was a very fair price. The house needed some updating but overall showed very well and the sellers made it very accessible for buyers to see.

We were listed for 3 weeks and had on average 12 showings each week but NO OFFERS. I had numerous other agents that work a lot in this particular market of Potomac Village. We reduced it $50,000 and low and behold …we had lots of calls for property disclosures and offers were registered.

Now – there are two items I find extremely interesting thing about this situation:

We were on the market for almost 40 days before we received one offer…but once we received one offer all of this major interest came forward. Rather than buyers being turned off by the multiple offers it seemed to make them more interested in it! We ended up with 8 offers just a few days later!

ALL OF THE OFFERS WERE between 950,000 and 980,000. There were no recent comps to support this price – if there were then it would all make more sense.

My clients, as with almost all Sellers, felt that their home was worth over a million dollars but at minimum they stated after the initial offer came in that they would not take a dime less than one million. I fought tooth and nail to get them “their number”.

We countered one offer and the Buyers wanted to wait a week to see what else came on the market so we withdrew our counter…we countered another offer and the buyers disappeared for 48 hours. Their agent couldn’t even find them so we withdrew that counter as well.

Finally – the buyers from the initial contract we countered came back and submitted an offer that was less than a million but my clients were so nervous about losing out again that they accepted this time as the rest of the terms were appealing enough.

As fate would have it – once we were completely ratified… I received two phone calls from two different agents stating that each of their clients wanted to buy my listing on Sorrel so desperately that they would pay at least 1 million! Unfortunately at that point it was too late.

We settled last week and everyone walked away happy…except the buyers that didn’t buy the house of course! Subsequently – no new homes have come up in the same price range in the Potomac Village area.